January cleaning

It's January, and if you're like me, you've been cleaning out those closets and doing home repairs. If I had the time or energy, I'd repaint my living room, get rid of half of my furniture, and redecorate the place. But since that's not about to happen either, I can do what most of the home decor magazines tell me to do: reaccessorize. Usually, they tell you to update a room with new throw pillows.

What I've been doing instead is taking an art inventory- I've moved some of the photographs and watercolors I have to freshen up various rooms. I've reframed a few pieces and added some new ones so I literally don't have to stare at the same four walls again!

After the holidays, most home furnishing stores have great frame sales so pick up up a few if you can. And remember when you're doing your winter and spring cleaning to properly clean the art you have in your home.

Dust wipes are great for cleaning your fine art. They get rid of dust and fingerprints. Avoid using feather dusters as the feathers can get inside the art if it’s not sealed properly. Also, never wipe glass or Plexiglas (or your eyeglasses for that matter!) with paper towels as they can scratch the surface. Make sure anything you use is nonabrasive. For Plexiglas, use a quality plastic cleaner.

NEVER spray any cleaner directly on the glass or frame of any artwork. The liquid can seep inside and cause damage to the mat and artwork.
If you must use a cleaner, put it on a cloth first and then wipe it on the surface.

If your work is highly valuable, don’t attempt to clean the art yourself. Find a good local conservator with a lot of experience. It’s not worth making a mistake.

Buying historical limited edition photographs

While limited edition digital prints are a great way to buy fine art photography at
affordable prices- as we do on www.WillItLookGoodOverTheSofa.com - for those of you who have the budget and are interested in collecting original historical photos, check out the current photo auctions at Sotheby’s, Christies and some of the other great auction houses. One of my favorites is the Swann Gallery in NY on 25th Street.

On October 15, they have an auction of important 19th and 20th century photographs. Included in this sale are a collection of nearly 40 nautical photographs including Gustave Le Gray's Brig on the Water, large-format albumen print, 1856 ( and Edward Weston's Boats, San Francisco, silver print, 1925.

The sale also features a partial set of Edward S. Curtis's magnum opus, The North American Indian, with 16 complete portfolios containing his large-format magisterial photogravures and 16 fully illustrated text volumes.


Other sale highlights include 19th century works, such as a whole-plate daguerreotype from the 1850s through contemporary art, including Joel Sternfeld's Exhausted Renegade Elephant, Woodland, Washington, chromogenic print, 1979.

What I like about these auctions, is that if you’re a photo collector even on a small scale, it’s an amazing way to see and learn about the history of photography and old photo processes like albumen prints, photogravure, etc.

To see their catalogue, go to www.swanngalleries.com and click on the catalogue section.